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Dec 1, 2010

Adding Ten-Ten Marks to Japanese Syllables

What are "ten-ten" marks, and what do can we do with them? A "ten-ten" mark is basically a single quotation symbol and is added to certain Japanese syllables to make new syllables that sound different. It makes voiced syllables gutteral. We can add "ten-ten" marks to the k, s, t, and h lines of the Japanese syllabary changin the syllables into their gutteral equivalents. An example would be when we place a "ten ten" mark after a voiced k it becomes its' gutteralized g. In other words, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko becomes ga, gi, gu, ge, go.

Lastly, the ha, hi, fu, he, ho line of the syllabary has two ways into which they can change. 1. Adding a "ten-ten" mark to the ha line of the syllabary makes them ba, bi ,bu ,be ,bo. 2. Adding a small degree symbol to the ha line makes each one turn into yet new syllables, they turn into pa, pi, pu, pe, po.